U.S. wants India to implement power contracts

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 08 October 2002, 19:30 IST
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WASHINGTON: The Bush administration has urged New Delhi to ensure implementation of contracts that U.S. power companies had signed in India. What concerns me most is that American power development and distribution firms in a number of states in India continue to face serious problems in having their contracts fulfilled, said U.S. Assistant Energy Secretary Vicky Bailey. She was speaking at the Indo-U.S. Energy Dialogue on Electricity Distribution Reform, organized by the U.S.-India Business Council and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Bailey, however, hoped that India's efforts to reform its power distribution system would help address these U.S. concerns and make certain that India can be viewed as an attractive investment environment. She made these observations in the presence of India's Power Minister Anant Gangaram Gite, who is currently on a coast-to-coast tour of the U.S. He is heading a 19-member delegation on electric power distribution reform. The team arrived here after visiting Palo Alto, San Francisco, Sacramento, Austin and Houston. Gite did not make a direct reference to the complaint by Bailey but said the process of reform in India's power sector would proceed uninterrupted and our efforts are bound to succeed. Gite listed the six-level intervention strategy; his ministry had drawn up to tone up the state electricity boards, the financial health of which he called a matter of grave concern due to their non-commercial operations. Earlier, Bailey said both President George Bush and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had identified India-U.S. energy cooperation as a priority in a joint statement in November that expanded the two countries' economic dialogue to include energy as one of the five pillars of cooperation. She urged New Delhi to take advantage of the opportunities the U.S. offered to help propel India's power sector forward. Bailey commended the strides India's power ministry had made in advancing the cause of reform. There is more to do, and I think you (Gite) recognized that by the fact that you have taken the time and effort to assemble this fine delegation and to come to America to explain your plans to reform the distribution sector and hopefully learn from our experiences. By focusing on power distribution, you are headed in the right direction, the U.S. energy official said. She said: I believe India already knows much about what it really needs to do. The challenge is to implement these reforms in an expeditious way.